Gait training early after stroke with a new exoskeleton--the hybrid assistive limb: a study of safety and feasibility

This was 6 years ago, did your hospital conclude that this wasn't needed because their stroke rehab program was functioning at such a high level nothing further was needed? If so, your hospital must be the best in the world.  Have they solved all these problems in stroke? If yes, then they need to nominate themselves for the Nobel prize in medicine.

I see nothing that suggests that any objective damage diagnosis was done so you know the candidates that this would be helpful for.  Without that, useless.

Gait training early after stroke with a new exoskeleton--the hybrid assistive limb: a study of safety and feasibility

 2014, Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation

 Anneli Nilsson, 1*, 

Katarina Skough Vreede,1,2, 

Vera Häglund,1, 

Yoshiyuki Sankai,3

Hiroaki Kawamoto,3,

Abstract

Background:

 Intensive task specific training early after stroke may enhance(NOT GOOD ENOUGH, , what will it take to be definite?) beneficial neuroplasticity and functionalrecovery. Impaired gait after hemiparetic stroke remains a challenge that may be approached early after stroke byuse of novel technology. The aim of the study was to investigate the safety and feasibility of the exoskeletonHybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) for intensive gait training as part of a regular inpatient rehabilitation program forhemiparetic patients with severely impaired gait early after stroke.
Methods:
 Eligible were patients until 7 weeks after hemiparetic stroke. Training with HAL was performed 5 daysper week by the autonomous and/or the voluntary control mode offered by the system. The study protocolcovered safety and feasibility issues and aspects on motor function, gait performance according to the 10 MeterWalking Test (10MWT) and Functional Ambulation Categories (FAC), and activity performance.
Results:
 Eight patients completed the study. Median time from stroke to inclusion was 35 days (range 6 to 46). Training started by use of the autonomous HAL mode in all and later switched to the voluntary mode in all butone and required one or two physiotherapists. Number of training sessions ranged from 6 to 31 (median 17) andwalking time per session was around 25 minutes. The training was well tolerated and no serious adverse eventsoccurred. All patients improved their walking ability during the training period, as reflected by the 10MWT (from 111.5 to 40 seconds in median) and the FAC (from 0 to 1.5 score in median). Is this walking with or without HAL? It should be without HAL since the goal is recovery NOT compensation.
Conclusions:
 The HAL system enables intensive training of gait in hemiparetic patients with severely impaired gaitfunction early after stroke. The system is safe when used as part of an inpatient rehabilitation program for thesepatients by experienced physiotherapists.